Maybe You Could Choose Me
by AuthoressThroughTime
Summary: Fighting battles, getting injured, and waking up in sickbay. Its a cycle set on repeat, but this time its different. This time Ironhide finally tells Ratchet how he feels. G1 RatchetxIronhide


**So I actually wrote this back in December and meant to post it then, but I had ended up writing and posting Mistletoe instead. After finding this story just sitting in my flashdrive I reread it, edited it, and thought is wasn't half bad. So i've decided to post. Enjoy.**

* * *

Multiple pairs of blue optics followed the movement of the white and red medic as he left the rec room, energon cube in hand. One such pair was Ironhide, who stared at the door even after the medic had left.

"You got a thing for Ratchet don't you?" Hound asked nudging the red mech.

"And what if Ah do?" Ironhide demanded, finally turning away from the door to look at the smaller green mech. Hound raised an optic ridge, grin becoming wider. Ironhide sighed, "Well maybe Ah do, but it doesn't really matter. There are a lot of other bots after him that he could choose from."

"Not everyone is after Ratchet, 'Hide." Hound lightly patted Ironhide's shoulder. "I'm not, for instance."

The red mech rolled his optics. "Well Ah know that. You're bonded to Mirage."

"Happily too." Hound replied grin growing just a bit wider. "Well good luck with Ratchet, 'Hide." With that the green mech walked away and left the rec room. Ironhide exvented heavily before taking a sip from the energon cube he had in his hand. He left the rec room as well.

* * *

Ratchet continued on his way back to the medbay, oblivious to the optics that followed him as he went. Processor preoccupied with the list of spare parts he needed to get, and quickly, before the next battle left one of the others damaged and left him with no replacement part to save them. He shuddered at the thought of losing one of the other mechs. It was in that moment that the intercom of the Ark crackled to life and Prowl's voice came over it, demanding all Autobots make their way to the control room. Ratchet sighed and turned on his heels making his way down the hallway he had just come from.

* * *

Ironhide upon hearing the announcement quickly made his way to the control room. There hadn't been a fight in weeks, and he had been starting to get restless. He slipped into his place at the head of the line of Autobots with Ratchet standing on his left. He noticed the medic glance over at him and give him a bit of a grim look. Ironhide frowned in response.

"Autobots." Optimus' baritone voice called all of their attention to him. "Teletraan 1 has just detected that the decepticons are raiding an electrical plant. We must go there and put a stop to them. Autobots transform and roll out!" With that order the sound of shifting metal as they transformed filled the base and the sound of running engines echoed in the halls. They left the base, Ironhide driving behind Optimus, with Ratchet right behind him, and everyone else followed behind in line. Once they came to the power plant it didn't take long for the decepticons to notice them.

"Autobots! Decepticons destroy them!" Megatron shouted, and a hail of laser fire came towards said Autobots. They transformed bringing out their own weapons and the battle began.

* * *

Ratchet wasn't the best at fighting, not by a long shot. He tried to avoid it as much as he could and mostly just kept a look out for others in need of help. Whenever he did end up directly in combat he often found himself laying on the ground with new dents or scorch marks added to his armor. Like now for instance, he began to push himself from the ground after Thundercracker had thrown him down. A part of him couldn't help but hope that his chevron was still intact after the blow to the helm the blue seeker had delivered. His audio receptors picked up on a cry of pain, so he looked around for an injured mech, and his optics landed on the sight of a prone red body.

* * *

Ironhide fired at any Decepticon that came within range, looking out from behind a corner of the main building of the electrical plant. It was then that he noticed that Skywarp had just appeared behind Bumblebee, and the small yellow bot had yet to notice, all his attention on firing at Laserbeak.

"Look out behind ya Bumblebee!" Ironhide shouted, running out to help the minibot. Bumblebee quickly turned around at the warning and looked up at the seeker who towered above him. Ironhide leapt over the yellow minibot and tackled the black and purple seeker, as they fell Skywarp managed to maneuver his arm so that his gun was pressed right into Ironhide's abdominal plate. Ironhide was shot point-blank, a cry of pain escaped his vocalizer. The two metal beings crashed into the ground and with a laugh Skywarp pushed Ironhide's damaged body off of him and took off to find a new opponent. Bumblebee stared in shock for a few seconds before running over to Ironhide, who had fallen unconscious. He got on his knees next to the larger mech and scanned the battlefield for any sign of Ratchet. He was about to com the medic when he caught sight of him already running in their direction.

* * *

Ratchet made his way to Ironhide as fast as possible, hardly paying attention to his surroundings as he rushed across the battlefield. He knelt besides the red mech assessing the damage. "What happened?" He asked of Bumblebee, never taking his optics off Ironhide.

"Skywarp shot him after Ironhide tackled him."

"I see…" He quickly pulled open the abdominal plating so that he could get to the circuitry within. "Bumblebee cover us." He ordered the small minibot who nodded and began to scan around to make sure nothing came to attack the medic and the damaged weapon specialist. Looking in at the circuitry Ratchet took in the damage. A few circuits and wires were scorched, not horribly, and Ironhide's self-repair systems could take care of that. A few wires were cut, but that wasn't life threatening so it could wait. The most worrying thing was the torn energon lines.

"Frag." Ratchet cursed under his breath, he was going to have to be fast. The medic quickly pulled clamps out of his subspace and reached into the open cavity to grab for the torn lines. Purple energon quickly coated his red servos. He placed the clamps on either end of the torn lines to stop the flow of energon. He then pulled out a soldering gun and set to work on reshaping the ends of the torn lines. He had almost finished with the first one when Bumblebee's voice finally broke through his concentration.

"Ratchet!"

"What?" He snapped, but it wasn't Bumblebee's voice that answered him.

"Ahh look one of the pathetic Autobots is injured and the medic is desperately trying to fix him." Came Starscream's grating voice. Ratchet quickly looked up to see the red seeker hovering above them.

"Not now." He growled looking back down to his fallen friend. Bumblebee tried to shoot the seeker down but with one hit Starscream smacked the minibot across the battlefield. Ratchet , no longer able to ignore the seeker, pulled out his own gun and tried to shoot the seeker. Starscream growled as one shot grazed his wing as he stalked towards the Autobot medic and downed warrior. With one blast he shot the medic's hand, forcing him to drop his gun. Ratchet stood his ground between Starscream and Ironhide, but now without a weapon and right servo hanging uselessly by his side.

"Move Autobot." The seeker ordered leveling his null ray at the medic's chassis.

"Never."

"Very well." Starscream smirked. He then let out a cry of pain as he was shot in the back. He whirled around to see Jazz, Bluestreak, and Sideswipe all running towards him. Before the three Autobots could advance much further on the Decepticon second in command Megatron called for the Decepticons to retreat and flew off escaping from Optimus, Starscream and all the other Decepticons following behind him. Without the threat of the seeker Ratchet instantly went back to trying to fix Ironhide. Though now he was one servo down. The Autobots started to regroup, many coming over to where Ironhide still laid unconscious on the ground. Wheeljack was among the bots who came over and he instantly knelt next to Ironhide on the opposite side to Ratchet.

"Primus, Ratchet you can't do that with one servo." His head fins lit up orange in worry.

"I can slag well try." Ratchet growled not looking away.

"Let me see your servo."

Ratchet glared at his friend, but decided that it was futile to try and keep going, so he merely held out his hand. Wheeljack took the red servo in his own grey ones and examined the wound. The shot had melted through the armor and a few wires were severed. He began reconnecting the wires, and as soon as the fingers started to twitch Ratchet pulled his servo back.

"Thanks." He said giving Wheeljack a small smile before focusing back on his work. All the Autobots had gathered around by now, creating a circle.

"How is Ironhide?" Optimus asked.

"Once I tighten these clamps some more he should be stable enough to bring back to base." Ratchet explained and Optimus nodded his helm. It became silent once again as Ratchet and Wheeljack prepped Ironhide for moving. "Alright." Ratchet stood up and took a few steps back. "Load him up." He transformed and opened up the back door of his alt mode. Wheeljack and Optimus carefully lifted up Ironhide and placed him in the ambulance. They took off for their base.

* * *

After Ironhide was finally fixed Ratchet and Wheeljack worked on repairing the minor damage done to the other bots. It took a few hours to get through everyone. Once done with the last mech Wheeljack forced Ratchet to go to the wash racks as the white armor was streaked purple with energon. He also finally got Ratchet to let him properly fix his servo. With both things done Wheeljack left to return to his lab, but not before reminding the medic to refuel on his way out. Ratchet then went about putting everything away in its proper place and cleaned up the various fluids that had been leaked in the medbay. It was about the time that he was done that he looked over and noticed Ironhide's optics were starting to flicker on.

* * *

Ironhide onlined his optics, and he looked up at the yellow ceiling of the medbay.

"Finally awake you slagger?" He turned his head to see Ratchet, who had a furious expression on his face. Ironhide was glad to see it, because if Ratchet didn't look furious then that would mean something was really wrong.

"Yeah Ah am. How long have Ah been out for?"

"Couple Earth hours now." Ratchet came closer and smacked the other upside the head. "Way to get yourself shot again."

"Ah was just trying ta protect Bumblebee."

"I know you were." Ratchet's voice had softened but it rose again with his next statement. "I just wish you slaggers would be more careful."

"We try ta be careful."

"Not hard enough!"

"Come on now, its alrigh'. This is a war aft'r all." He patted the medic's shoulder before starting to push himself up.

"What are you doing? I just finished patching your sorry plating up." Ratchet tried to push Ironhide back down, but the weapon specialist was stronger and just pushed the other's servos away. In doing so he noticed the weld mark across the other's right servo. He winced slightly knowing that that must be painful as medic's servos were extremely sensitive.

"What happened?" He asked catching hold of the damaged servo.

"Shot by Starscream." Ratchet noticed the other's frown and pulled his servo away. "Its fine. My self-repair systems will have it fixed soon enough."

"Alrigh'. Glad to hear it."

"Yes well... you're going to be staying here for awhile so that I can keep an optic on you." Ratchet huffed and Ironhide nodded his head but swung his legs over the side of the berth anyway. Ratchet merely turned away to put one last wrench in its proper place.

"Hey Ratchet?" Ironhide called, the medic paused and turned back to look at him. With the white and red mech's attention now on him Ironhide paused, vocalizer stalling for a moment. "Do ya- Do ya ever notice how some of those other mechs look at ya?"

Ratchet rose and optic ridge, but turned to completely face the red mech. "Of course I do. I only pretend to be oblivious." A sly grin formed. "I notice you give me the same look."

"Do ya? Well out of all those bots maybe- maybe you could choose me." Ironhide's face plate heated up as the words escaped his vocalizer without thinking about them.

"Maybe I already have." Ratchet said softly and leaned in placing a soft kiss on Ironhide's lips, which the red mech reciprocated happily.

* * *

 **So yeah its a bit cheesy. But you know, its G1, what're you going to do? Anyways... Thanks for reading and reviews are always appreciated.**


End file.
